May a city
employee accept an invitation to visit a city vendor’s production facility in
another state to review innovations made in products typically purchased by the
city?

II. Inquiry

A city
employee has been invited by a company that holds a contract with the city to
supply goods and services to visit its production facility.The company has offered to pay for any reasonable
business-related expenses for this employee’s visit.The employee has inquired whether he may take
this trip and whether he may accept the payment of business travel related
expenses.

III.The Ethics Code

A
City Employee May Accept Payment from Outside Entities for Reasonable
Business-Related Travel Expenses

The Ethics Code allows city personnel to accept payment
of reasonable business-related travel by outside parties, even
those which may contract or seek business with the city.

Section 2-45 of the Ethics Code restricts
employees from accepting personal gifts from city vendors.However, Section 2-45(b)(2) provides that
employees may accept:

(2) advancement
for or reimbursement of reasonable expenses for travel in connection with
official duties authorized in accordance with city policies; such payments must
be disclosed in a travel report as required in Section 2-76;payment for or reimbursement of expenses for
travel in excess of authorized rates under city policy will be treated as a personal
gift to the official or employee for any applicable reporting requirements
under Sections 2-73, 2-74 or 2-78;

The business-related travel must be
authorized by the department director and the expenses paid by the outside
entity must be reported before the travel takes place on a Travel Report
form. Ethics Code Section 2-76. "Reasonable" costs are
those costs which the city would cover were the city to fund the
travel. Costs which the city would not typically cover for travel
(upgrades to first class, private jet transportation, upgraded accommodations,
entertainment such as golf games or sports events) would not be considerable
"reasonable" business-related travel costs, and would be required to
be reported as gifts on annual gift report or financial disclosure statement,
assuming the employee is subject to those reporting requirements.Ethics Code Sections 2-73, 2-74 and 2-78.

B.Benefits
Beyond Reasonable Business Expenses Must be Treated as Personal Gifts

Section 2-45 of the Ethics Code governs
the receipt of gifts by city employees.Section 2-45 states in relevant part:

(1) A
city official or employee shall not solicit, accept, or agree to accept any
gift or benefit for himself or herself or his or her business:

(A)
that reasonably tends to influence or reward official conduct; or

(B) that
the official or employee knows or should know is being offered with the intent
to influence or reward official conduct.

...

(2) A city
official or employee shall not solicit, accept, or agree to accept any gift or
benefit, from:

(A) any
individual or entity doing or seeking to do business with the City; or

(B) any
registered lobbyist or public relations firm; or

(C) any
person or entity seeking action or advocating on zoning or platting matters
before a city body,

save and except for

i)items received that are of nominal value; or

ii) meals in an individual expense of $50 or
less at any occurrence, and no more than a cumulative value of $500 in a single
calendar year from a single source.

There is no indication from this
inquiry that the outside vendor intends to provide the employee with benefits
other than paying the costs of his travel and accommodation to visit their
production facility.Should the vendor,
however, pay for expenditures that would not be covered by the city were the
city funding the cost of the trip, those additional expenditures would be
treated as personal gifts to the employee and he would be required to comply
with any applicable gift reporting requirements under Section 2-73 or 2-78 of
the Ethics Code.

IV.Conclusion

The employee may accept payment
of expenses for business-related travel but must receive approval from his
department director and report the expenditures and the identity outside party
paying the expenses on the Travel Report Form.Any gifts received in excess of costs that
would have been covered by the city had the city funded the trip would be
subject to gift restriction and reporting provisions of the Ethics Code.